Tag: mumssavvysavings

Most people are aware that they should not just let their car insurance renew. Just like house and buildings every year, it is rare that your renewal will be cheaper than starting afresh. I have just taken out my car insurance and after recovering from the jaw drop of seeing how much my car has gone down in value, thought I’d give you some figures just to show you the importance of shopping around and not just using comparison websites. These are all quotes from today 11th October 2017

1st Central renewal quote

£505.00

1st Central renewal online chat

£490.00 (when stopping auto renewal online chat)

1st Central direct on website

£473.95

Moneysupermarket.com (1st Central cheapest)

£503.31

Confused.com (AA cheapest)

£393.91

Comparethemeerkat (MoreThan cheapest)

£385.12

MoreThan direct on website

£382.28

AA direct on website

£348.31

AA through Topcashback

£348.31 (minus £40 paid to Topcashback account

A saving of £196.69 (39%) of the renewal price. It is such a boring way to spend half an hour of your life, it really is, but how can you not do it when it saves this sort of money?

Topcashback* is a great cashback site. Go there before buying anything. Sign up and whenever you shop check Topcashback first, and if the store is listed click on the link and get cashback. Don’t rely on this though as there may be terms and conditions that you miss (such as using vouchers) negating the cashback. Other big cashback sites include Kidstart* (where the cashback goes to your nominated child’s bank account), Quidco* and Free fivers*. Others that I’ve not used are Imutual, Give or take and there are others. It is worth signing up to a few as they all have different traders, different % cashback and different offers on at various times. Time consuming but worth it more often than not! £40 for taking an extra five minutes is quite a nice hourly rate (if only I could do it all hours!)

A dozen top tips

Last year, using a cashback site wasn’t cheaper, somehow in the system it knew so don’t think that after getting your cheapest quote you always get the cashback from the same price. Clear your cookies which may help!

Don’t completely disregard your renewal quote as most companies are nearly always open to haggling, I’ve yet to hear of anyone failing when they do this. Now I don’t know why I didn’t try it after getting the last quote. Fool.

I only went direct to the cheapest on each of the comparison websites

Some providers are only able to produce a certain number of quotations per customer, and after the limit has been reached, they will no longer be able to produce quotations online on some sites so don’t hundreds of tweaks!

You can always try changing your job title. I’ve heard of people getting cheaper quotes when changing “builder” to “construction” etc., but to be perfectly honest I’ve never seen a difference and of course it does still have to describe the job! But it may work with some insurers so do try it.

Save your details on the comparison websites so if you keep the car you don’t have to waste your time filling it all out again.

Look at deals that may work out cheaper if you switch your contents and building insurance same provider and visa versa.

Check the additional add ons. Do you already have breakdown cover, is something already covered by your bank, travel or house insurance?

Pay up front rather than in instalments if you can as this is always cheaper

Adding a more experienced driver to your policy can reduce the premium

Check the excess, think about how much you could afford to pay and go with that, the difference between £50 and £100 excess can reduce the amount significantly

Don’t leave until the last minute, compare prices about 3 weeks before the renewal date and make sure you cancel any auto renewal!

Bonus tips!
After doing the quote and post I asked some fellow money bloggers for tips that I hadn’t thought of and now I wonder if I could have got it reduced even further!

Katy from KatyKicker wrote about saving money on insurance and provides lots of tips, one being a really really good point! Check the policy! When you go through comparison websites check like for like, windscreen cover, legal cover, replacement car etc. And consider asking your current provider for a loyalty discount rather than just quoting competitors’ prices.

Emily from A Thrify Fox says she had an automated email thingy from confused.com telling her that Admiral was the cheapest for her.

Now this is a little known secret and is brilliant! Emma from Mumssavvysavings wrote a post about Reducing the cost of learning to drive and in it says that she got insurance from a company that they pay for 28 days of insurance and only use on any days they choose within three months. Superb!

* referral links – I’ll get a few pounds if you sign up once you’ve made more than whatever their minimum is. (Topcashback is the one I really use and that’s £10) Depending on when you click on this link you may receive a bonus but that depends on the offer on at the time. You can then use your own referral link and send to friends too.